[Guest post: travel notes on a recent trip to the windy city with an emphasis on, that's right, FOOD!]

Hot Doug’s

Located in Avondale, HD’s is the best hot dog joint in the known universe. From the solid renditions of all the classics (brat, beef hot, thuringer, polish) to the ever-changing list of specials and the “Game of the Week” (Rattlesnake the week we were last there, and no, I wasn’t down), you are not going to find dogs with more claim to gourmet legitimacy than Doug’s. Bring a friend or two and just chat and enjoy checking out the other customers (never know what you might see!) while you wait the 45 minutes to an hour to get in the front door. Once in you’ll be treated to the vast collection of hot dog memorabilia that adorn the walls, and you will be soon chomping down on some fine encased meat, yo.

What time is it? Dog time, dog!

Clockwise from the bottom, bacon cheeseburger dog, Al Gork with pork, tomatillo mole, and queso fresco, classic brat with the works, foie gras sauterne duck sausage, and duck fat fries (Friday/Saturday only).

Nightwood

Located in Pilsen on S. Halsted, Nightwood features a cozy outdoor space, a noisy seventies style dining room, and some nice localvore farm-to-table items on their handwritten menu. We had an excellent ‘fried rice’ in which the rice was actually cripy like the cereal, and an amazing cucumber salad. The house made tagliatelle were also a standout.

The dining room.

The patio scene.

Yes those are mustard tops on the cucumber salad, which also had peppers,peaches, and creme fraîche.

Urban Belly

Also out in Avondale on California, Urban Belly is unpretentious new school take on noodles, rice bowls and dumplings tucked away in an unassuming strip mall.

They are BYOB, so before hitting UB, go two blocks further to the Temple of Beer, at the corner of Elston and Cali, where you’ll find an outstanding collection of bottled brews from Chicago and beyond (including Green Flash IPA from San Diego). Tell the clerk you’re going to UB and s/he’ll stoke you a coupon good for one free dumpling order.

It’s in a strip mall but you can’t miss it if you know where to look.

La carte.

The Korean bbq beef and scallion rice bowl.

A

Asian squash and bacon dumplings.

Black Dog Gelato

On your way back from Urban Belly, you might want to head to this nearby neighborhood purveyor of excellent house made ice cream. They put their handwritten menu up on the front glass of the shop. The shop is on a quiet residential street with a couple benches and planters outside, which was a pleasant place to lick the cream.

Xoco

Part of the Rich Bayless empire, next door to the Frontera Grill on Clark in River North, Xoco has some interesting breakfast offerings, such as wood-oven fired chilaquiles. Living up to their name, you can get any coffee drink with excellent mexican chocolate in it. People seem to like the mini churros they make in house, but we gave them a miss. They offer a full third of a fresh avocado as a topping on any entree, for only a buck, which seemed like a good deal.

Intelligensia

This is a local chain of boutique coffee roasters and brewers. The coffee was pretty good, but the hipster spotting was off the charts, even if there’s zero customers, since all the emps were rocking old timey vests, ties, and elaborate facial hair.

I’d skip the pastries though, they were a fail, at least on a Sunday.

Maude’s Liquor Bar

Across the street and up Randolph a bit from Girl and The Goat, this is a place that takes mixology seriously and might be the call if you need to kill some time before your 11pm reservation. The guy serving us was in training, and his shadow was sampling every drink the trainee mixed (or was the shadow just getting loaded on the company dime one straw full at a time? Maybe just a benefit you enjoy as an established mixologist there.) They specialize in squashes (Tom Collins with muddled lime) but they had no problem producing an excellent aviation (not on the list) for me either.

The amber glow candle light through a good whiskey drink.

Millenium Park

This is in every guide book, and is a must see in Chicago, but I mention it because you can get a great view of the Jay Pritzker Music Pavillion from the Pritzker Modern Wing at the Art Institute, on the third floor, in an unpaid area outside Terzo Piano, the restaurant there. From this vantage you can see the great river skyline and Frank Gehri’s vision for the music pavillion. From there, you can take the Nichols Bridgeway across E. Monroe down to the park.

Also you absolutely cannot miss two super cool art works there, the Crown Fountain, an amazing video and water installation along Michigan between Monroe and Madison, and Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate, also known as the kidney bean, one of the most interesting public sculpture pieces I’ve ever seen.

Crown Fountain. On a warm day the kids will be going off.

Approaching the Cloud Gate.

Inside the Gate.